Experiment Representing Millikan's Experiment

[umer007]

I am supposed to perform an experiment in class where I have to measure the mass of some little plastic bottles. I believe there are different coloured bottles and there are a certain number of items inside each coloured bottle (so each bottle with the same colour should have about the same mass). I am not sure how but this experiment is supposed to represent Millikan's experiment in which he tried to determine the elementary charge.

 

Could someone plz help me out and lemme know how to go about finding the number of items in one specific coloured bottle. I m kinda lost so ur help would be much appreciated and also if some1 could describe how this relates to Millikan's experiment, that would also b helpful.

 

Thx in advance.

[JustStuit]

Maybe it is trying to show that the weight added by the items in the bottles should always be in multiples of a least common denominator. This least common denominater would be the mass of one of the items. This is if they are all the same mass. This is basically replacing chrage with mass in his experiment.

[umer007]

could you plz. explain to me how to find the mass of one item or how to find the # of items in the bottles. Would i have to take the average of as many bottles as I can weigh or....I am hitting a brick wall here. I cant see the number of items in the bottle but I need to know how many there are by measuring the mass of the bottle with the items inside.

[swansont]

In the Milllikan experiment the charge on the oil drop was q = Ne, where N is an integer and e the fundamental charge.

 

In your experiment it's a little more complicated because you have an added constant. What general expression gives you the mass of the bottle and the objects inside?

[umer007]

i think mass of each item in each bottle is the same. I thought that if we take the mass of each bottle and subtract by all bottles smaller than it for example we have 5 bottles wid masses:

A: 5g B: 8g C: 9g D: 12g E: 13g

 

if we do E - D, E-C, E-B, E-A, D-C, D-B, D-A, C-B, C-A, B-A. Then the smallest number of the subtractions will be the mass of one item since the mass of the bottle will automatically cancel out. However the problem with this is that we are assuming there are two bottles among the five where in one bottle there are x amount of items and in another bottle there are 2x amount of items. So 2x-x would yield x, mass of just 1 or x item. BUt if none of the bottles suit this pattern, if the closest I get is 5x - 3x, the result mass would be of 2x, 2 items not just one. So how would I know by doing the E-D, E-C..... subtractions that I am getting the mass of just one item or more than one. If it is more than one item, how would I know the number of items of which I am finding the mass, I would need to know the number of items to get the right answer for the mass of one item.

 

Ne help would b much appreciated.

 

Thx in advance.

[swansont]

They should fit a pattern of M_bottle + NM_item

 

So subtracting two measurements should give you nM_item. The smallest n can be is 1. What's the smallest difference in masses?

 

As a check of that, all of the difference should be integral values of that, i.e. they should be NM_item

[s pepperchin]

i think mass of each item in each bottle is the same. I thought that if we take the mass of each bottle and subtract by all bottles smaller than it for example we have 5 bottles wid masses:

A: 5g B: 8g C: 9g D: 12g E: 13g

 

if we do E - D' date=' E-C, E-B, E-A, D-C, D-B, D-A, C-B, C-A, B-A. Then the smallest number of the subtractions will be the mass of one item since the mass of the bottle will automatically cancel out. However the problem with this is that we are assuming there are two bottles among the five where in one bottle there are x amount of items and in another bottle there are 2x amount of items. So 2x-x would yield x, mass of just 1 or x item. BUt if none of the bottles suit this pattern, if the closest I get is 5x - 3x, the result mass would be of 2x, 2 items not just one. So how would I know by doing the E-D, E-C..... subtractions that I am getting the mass of just one item or more than one. If it is more than one item, how would I know the number of items of which I am finding the mass, I would need to know the number of items to get the right answer for the mass of one item.

 

Ne help would b much appreciated.

 

Thx in advance.[/quote']

 

 

Are those example numbers or real measured values?